Scanning 35mm half frame negatives

[julio1fer]

I own two scanners, Epson V600 and Pacific Image XE super. Both may be used for 35mm half frame negatives.

However, the standard film holder is not too practical in the PI (one has to keep adjusting the negative strip position, because the plastic frames eventually superpose with a film frame). Resolution is not that great in the Epson for that small frame size, although the Epson holder has no plastic frames and is more convenient.

Does anyone know of film holders to recommend for scanning 35mm half frame in the Pacific Image XE super?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[loccdor]

That sounds like a frame spacing irregularity that could also cause issues if you were scanning full frames. Couldn't you remove the cross-members from the Pacific Image holder? That would potentially reduce the film flatness, though.

 

[FriedLouisStudio]

I didn't like the 35mm plastic holders that came with my HP scanner even for full-frame use, and they were really bad for half-frame negs. When scanning transparencies, the scanner's (automatically set and not manually controllable) focus point is set a tiny fraction above the glass for a mounted slide. Getting negatives to that exact height isn't easy; just laying the negative strips right on the glass results in soft images.

I made a crude cardboard mask - just two thin pieces with a cutout for a five-frame strip (or nine half fames) sandwiched together with a piece of tape on one long side. The cut is just tall enough to mask the sprocket holes. It's not an ideal solution - with no cross-pieces, film curl is a problem, so I generally let my negatives flatten under weight for a couple of days before scanning. And I'm not skilled enough to have made the mask with a perfect right angle so I could simply butt it up against the edge of the scanner glass for correct horizontal orientation, so getting negatives perfectly aligned to the horizon can be tricky.

A crude jury rig? Yes. But with careful fiddling, it works okay a lot of the time. Here are examples, 2400dpi scans of Double-X negs from my Pen F and Pen S:

 

[julio1fer]

Your scans look quite good! Is that a flatbed scanner?

Maybe I should 3D-print a custom holder for the Pacific Image. The standard holder clicks into position for each of the 6 full-frame negatives in the strip. However the scanner works if one positions the holder in between clicks.

As said above any irregularities in film spacing causes the cross members to intrude in a frame.

If I can make a holder with no cross-members and no clicked positions, it should be practical.

 

[FriedLouisStudio]

It's a Hewlett-Packard G4050 flatbed scanner that does both flatbed scans and backlit transparency/negative scans. No automatic feed mechanism, just an old school flatbed scanner.

I'm running it with VueScan because it's not supported by HP software in Win 11, but had been in Win 10 when I got it around eight years ago. It's not a high-end device - 2400dpi maximum - more of an average scanner from the days when separate scanners and printers were still somewhat common vs "all-in-ones". I think it was in the $400-500 range when I got it.

After a quick Google, it appears there are still dual-mode scanners like this one out there from makers like Epson and Canon...